QP: Responding to breaking news mid-QP

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The prime minister made his final appearance at QP for the session this morning, in person after his second bout of COVID, before he heads off to Rwanda for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting later in the week. All of the other leaders decided to show up as well, so that they could gather one last round of outrage clips before the summer. Candice Bergen led off, script in front of her, and she decried the sexual assault that Hockey Canada covered up had been known by the heritage department for four years, and accused him of being a bad feminist. Justin Trudeau lamented the situation, and insisted that the government pushed back against sexual misconduct in organisations around the country and that every needs to end the trivialisation of sexual misconduct in sport, which was why they ordered an audit of Hockey Canada. Bergen remarked that the government was either complicit or incompetent before she pivoted to hybrid sittings, and claimed that this was because Trudeau and his ministers don’t like to show up and would rather be on travel junkets. Trudeau proclaimed that hybrid sittings were vital and that Parliament was like “any other workplace,” adjusting to the ways of the future, and I nearly lost my gods damned mind. No, this is not like any other workplace. You are not middle managers in some office job. You’re elected representatives, and your job is in-person and in Ottawa, and trivializing this is incredibly poor form. Bergen tried again, demanding an end to hybrid sittings, while Trudeau went off about Conservative obstructionism. Luc Berthold took over in French and decried the lineups at passport offices, for which Trudeau read his lines about additional resources and employees work overtime. Berthold was not mollified and went off on this again, and got the same recited answer.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he too decried the lines and passport offices in slow, angry language, and Trudeau insisted that they believe the demand has peaked as they work through the delays. Blanchet wondered if Trudeau wanted to sleep in the rain for two nights to get a passport, and Trudeau insisted that they started hiring in January and that they were “accelerating solutions.”

Jagmeet Singh rose for the Bloc, worrying about the drinking water in Neskantaga, which has not had it for two decades. Trudeau paid mention to the fact that it was Indigenous Peoples Day, and that they have lifted 120 advisories when there were 109 when they took office, and for all remaining communities, there were plans and resources to complete their projects. Lori Idlout took over, and insisted that current investments in the Arctic were not sufficient for Inuit, and decried that NORAD was colonial and patriarchal. Trudeau noted his discussions with the premier of Nunavut, and his investments in the North.

Round two, and Dan Albas insisted that the prime minister had consistently gotten inflation wrong—as though she were psychic (Freeland, by video: We are expected to have the greatest growth in the G7, the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio, and they had affordability measures), and he decried post-COVID stimulus that didn’t actually happen (Freeland: Let me quote some ratings agencies), Shannon Stubbs decried fuel prices (Freeland: We have to remember that Putin is responsible for inflation; We are at the highest rate of fiscal consolidation), and Gérard Deltell raised a court decision on a KPMG issue (Lebouthillier: I can’t make comments on specific cases and CRA is independent in its investigations).

Louise Chabot worried that improper fees were being charged for passports (Gould: Employees have been instructed not to charge additional fees; Senior management is in the field to manage the situation), and Yves Perron decried that there was no assistance for farmers due to inflation (Bibeau: We are working on options to help farmers).

Mike Lake returned to the passport situation and tried to tie it to the election, somehow (Gould: There is an unprecedented surge, and we added resources ahead of time), and Chris Warkentin, Bernard Généroux, and Dean Allison gathered their own clips on the issue (Gould: You can call my office for urgent cases; This is not a situation unique or to Canada, and here is a list of countries where their wait time are eleven to twenty-seven weeks).

Singh was back up to return to the KPMG issue, in both official languages (Lebouthillier: You cannot hide because the CRA will find you; CRA is independent and I do not direct them).

Round three saw questions on the former public safety commission trying to score points off with the release of numbers of the mass shooting in Nova Scotia (Mendicino: The public commission is doing their work; Blair: This was dealt with by the commission, and the Commissioner of the RCMP confirmed that no such direction was given), the KPMG issue (Lebouthillier: $2 billion has been invested infighting tax evasion, but if you want to become an RCMP tax investigator I will send a letter of recommendation your behalf; I don’t direct the CRA’s investigation), Hockey Canada getting funds four years after someone alerted the department about the allegations (St-Onge: At the time, we were told this file had been transferred to the London police, and we have ordered an audit), funding shelters and transitional housing (Battiste: We have a whole-of-government approach to the calls for justice for MMIW), and housing for the vulnerable (Hussen: We have invested in the rapid housing initiative and new housing for the vulnerable).

Overall, it was a strange day, but one which does demonstrate how our QP can be more flexible and responsive to events than the UK’s can, given that they need to submit questions in advance (though they do tend to give more substantive answers as a result). In particular, when the news came out over Twitter about the allegation of political interference in the Nova Scotia mass-shooting investigation, MPs were able to ask about it right away, and get an answer right away. The problem, of course, is that the Conservatives have only one speed on this, with the only variation being the level of sanctimony they apply, and as a result, they kept asking the same thing over, and over, and over, getting the same response over, and over, and over, rather than trying to tease out more information by asking different questions on the same topic. They’re really not good at this, and getting worse as they have really just turned this into an exercise in gathering clips for shitposts.

https://twitter.com/AaronWherry/status/1539327926742798341

https://twitter.com/AaronWherry/status/1539328438984654848

Speaking of, we saw repetitive questions—from more than one party, mind you—on passport offices, a settlement agreement for KMPG, and the Hockey Canada investigation, though I would note that we didn’t have a single demand for a resignation today, so small favours? I will also add that John Brassard naming Blair specifically twice in one of his questions on the RCMP issue, which he is not allowed to do, got no discipline from the Speaker. The Speaker chided him about being dramatic for TV, but didn’t rebuke him, and lo, Brassard started chirping back at him about it. And the Speaker let it slide. Honestly, Rota is virtually useless as Speaker, which is such a disappointment, because we need a firmer hand, especially now.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Anita Anand for her lavender jacket over what appeared to be a black top and slacks, and to Peter Fragiskatos for a dark grey three-piece suit with a white shirt and pocket square with a purple tie. Style citations go out to Arif Virani for a tan suit with a light blue shirt and a navy tie and pocket square, and to Pam Damoff off for a v-necked floral print dress. Dishonourable mention goes out to James Bezan for a black suit with a white shirt and a bright yellow tie.